Seated And Bust Half Dollars- Grade And Value?

@Big Silver
Thank you for the advice! I have had some success selling on ebay in the past. It seems as though that would be my best bet for these kind of coins?

Its not just professionals though who are collecting slabs. Slabs can be a fun way to enjoy the hobby, but unfortunately people who have grown up with the internet and ebay have come to see slabs as just a natural, integral, and important part of the coin collecting hobby.

While I always urge people to enjoy a hobby the way they find is most fun for them (definition of what a hobby should be) - as an old timer in the hobby I don't like how marketing has made a generation of collectors who do not realize slabbing is far from essential and is just a commercialized service.

Overall it has done a lot of harm to the hobby such as in the very way we see here in your thread. Forget the history of each piece, forget the amazing design - melt it b/c its not slab worthy! Sad.

Anyway - let me also say the facts are the slabbing companies do offer services which can help some enjoy the hobby. Some people like the look of certain special labels (which are charged more for putting them in the slab but look nice), some people like to make a set all of one grade, etc. Its all about how a person wants to collect. Just be well informed and always ... buy the coin and not the slab.

I agree with Joe2007. Best case on ebay the three coins bring $50 retail. Back out your fees/shipping and you net $40. That is a best case. You have to be prepared to take $20 or $30 for the group becuase that is closer to their real value.

You are right, bull chaser. To many people that only see value in high end coins, any kind of problem on silver, no matter how old or scarce, relegates it to being worth only "melt". This view is incorrect, and could result in historical coins literally being melted if people ignore the fact that many collectors never get to collect these beautiful early series due to scarcity and cost. These coins have so much more value than their silver and we are responsible for preserving the coins that are left for posterity.

How much did you pay for them ?

I'll never understand the appeal of this sort of thing, but it's your money.



to the CCF!

I understand.
Not too far from where I am sitting is a rock that has had Lock Ness written on it in Permanent marker. So what? Its a rock!

Yes, but its an actual piece of Loch Ness. But...but...its just a rock!

No matter where I travel, one of the most cherished souvenirs I get is a rock - about fist sized or larger. A legitimate piece from Loch Ness; The Great Salt Lake; Lake Erie; the Bay of Fundy; a piece of rock blasted from the (literal) face of the Crazy Horse monument; a boulder sized chunk of coquina from Daytona; a ballast rock from Augusta; 4-corners (near - where it was legal to take a rock!); a Pony Express station (nearby - where it was legal to take a rock); etc. etc. And they are all labeled/engraved as to their origin. I have a tiny set I picked up on European travels (big rocks don't carry so well on planes) - and one from right at Ground Zero NYC.

So you have holed coins from the early 1800s - who touched them? Where were they spent...and on what? Were they on a battlefield of the Civil War? Who in the world took the time to put a hole in them (and likely before the convenience of electric drills!)?

This is what happens when you put history into a more prominent spot of a hobby than the aesthetics of some of the hobby items.

If perfect examples of these coins were a dime a dozen, then I would understand not paying anything for a holed one. But when starting out, or when getting the first of a type set and not wanting to pay a whole lot, these are still a legit piece of early American history and have their own mysteries and amazement associated with them.

But, what do I know? I collect glass insulators as avidly as coins, and recently I have gotten into restoring old hand tools for the history aspect.